Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Breitbart; We have all been very naughty.
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE CARE OF CREATION
1 SEPTEMBER 2019
“And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:25). God’s gaze, at the beginning of the Bible, rests lovingly on his creation. From habitable land to life-giving waters, from fruit-bearing trees to animals that share our common home, everything is dear in the eyes of God, who offers creation to men and women as a precious gift to be preserved.Tragically, the human response to this gift has been marked by sin, selfishness and a greedy desire to possess and exploit. Egoism and self-interest have turned creation, a place of encounter and sharing, into an arena of competition and conflict. In this way, the environment itself is endangered: something good in God’s eyes has become something to be exploited in human hands. Deterioration has increased in recent decades: constant pollution, the continued use of fossil fuels, intensive agricultural exploitation and deforestation are causing global temperatures to rise above safe levels. The increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather phenomena and the desertification of the soil are causing immense hardship for the most vulnerable among us. Melting of glaciers, scarcity of water, neglect of water basins and the considerable presence of plastic and microplastics in the oceans are equally troubling, and testify to the urgent need for interventions that can no longer be postponed. We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own.
In effect, we have forgotten who we are: creatures made in the image of God (cf. Gen 1:27) and called to dwell as brothers and sisters in a common home. We were created not to be tyrants, but to be at the heart of a network of life made up of millions of species lovingly joined together for us by our Creator. Now is the time to rediscover our vocation as children of God, brothers and sisters, and stewards of creation. Now is the time to repent, to be converted and to return to our roots. We are beloved creatures of God, who in his goodness calls us to love life and live it in communion with the rest of creation.
For this reason, I strongly encourage the faithful to pray in these days that, as the result of a timely ecumenical initiative, are being celebrated as a Season of Creation. This season of increased prayer and effort on behalf of our common home begins today, 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. It is an opportunity to draw closer to our brothers and sisters of the various Christian confessions. I think in particular of the Orthodox faithful, who have celebrated this Day for thirty years. In this ecological crisis affecting everyone, we should also feel close to all other men and women of good will, called to promote stewardship of the network of life of which we are part.
This is the season for letting our prayer be inspired anew by closeness to nature, which spontaneously leads us to give thanks to God the Creator. Saint Bonaventure, that eloquent witness to Franciscan wisdom, said that creation is the first “book” that God opens before our eyes, so that, marvelling at its order, its variety and its beauty, we can come to love and praise its Creator (cf. Breviloquium, II, 5, 11). In this book, every creature becomes for us “a word of God” (cf. Commentarius in Librum Ecclesiastes, I, 2). In the silence of prayer, we can hear the symphony of creation calling us to abandon our self-centredness in order to feel embraced by the tender love of the Father and to share with joy the gifts we have received. We can even say that creation, as a network of life, a place of encounter with the Lord and one another, is “God’s own ‘social network’” (Audience for the Guides and Scouts of Europe, 3 August 2019). Nature inspires us to raise a song of cosmic praise to the Creator in the words of Scripture: “Bless the Lord, all things that grow on the earth, sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever” (Dan 3:76 Vg).
It is also a season to reflect on our lifestyles, and how our daily decisions about food, consumption, transportation, use of water, energy and many other material goods, can often be thoughtless and harmful. Too many of us act like tyrants with regard to creation. Let us make an effort to change and to adopt more simple and respectful lifestyles! Now is the time to abandon our dependence on fossil fuels and move, quickly and decisively, towards forms of clean energy and a sustainable and circular economy. Let us also learn to listen to indigenous peoples, whose age-old wisdom can teach us how to live in a better relationship with the environment.
This too is a season for undertaking prophetic actions. Many young people all over the world are making their voices heard and calling for courageous decisions. They feel let down by too many unfulfilled promises, by commitments made and then ignored for selfish interests or out of expediency. The young remind us that the earth is not a possession to be squandered, but an inheritance to be handed down. They remind us that hope for tomorrow is not a noble sentiment, but a task calling for concrete actions here and now. We owe them real answers, not empty words, actions not illusions.
Our prayers and appeals are directed first at raising the awareness of political and civil leaders. I think in particular of those governments that will meet in coming months to renew commitments decisive for directing the planet towards life, not death. The words that Moses proclaimed to the people as a kind of spiritual testament at the threshold of the Promised Land come to mind: “Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live” (Dt 3:19). We can apply those prophetic words to ourselves and to the situation of our earth. Let us choose life! Let us say “no” to consumerist greed and to the illusion of omnipotence, for these are the ways of death. Let us inaugurate farsighted processes involving responsible sacrifices today for the sake of sure prospects for life tomorrow. Let us not give in to the perverse logic of quick profit, but look instead to our common future!
In this regard, the forthcoming United Nations Climate Action Summit is of particular importance. There, governments will have the responsibility of showing the political will to take drastic measures to achieve as quickly as possible zero net greenhouse gas emissions and to limit the average increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius with respect to pre-industrial levels, in accordance with the Paris Agreement goals. Next month, in October, the Amazon region, whose integrity is gravely threatened, will be the subject of a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Let us take up these opportunities to respond to the cry of the poor and of our earth!
Each Christian man and woman, every member of the human family, can act as a thin yet unique and indispensable thread in weaving a network of life that embraces everyone. May we feel challenged to assume, with prayer and commitment, our responsibility for the care of creation. May God, “the lover of life” (Wis 11:26), grant us the courage to do good without waiting for someone else to begin, or until it is too late.
Read more: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2019/documents/papa-francesco_20190901_messaggio-giornata-cura-creato.html
From the Vatican, 1 September 2019
FRANCIS
His Holiness’ claim that the intensity AND frequency of extreme weather is increasing is evidence of how badly he is being advised, because it is not actually possible for both the intensity and frequency of extreme weather to increase worldwide.
But don’t take my word for it.
Constrained work output of the moist atmospheric heat engine in a warming climate
Incoming and outgoing solar radiation couple with heat exchange at Earth’s surface to drive weather patterns that redistribute heat and moisture around the globe, creating an atmospheric heat engine. Here, we investigate the engine’s work output using thermodynamic diagrams computed from reanalyzed observations and from a climate model simulation with anthropogenic forcing. We show that the work output is always less than that of an equivalent Carnot cycle and that it is constrained by the power necessary to maintain the hydrological cycle. In the climate simulation, the hydrological cycle increases more rapidly than the equivalent Carnot cycle. We conclude that the intensification of the hydrological cycle in warmer climates might limit the heat engine’s ability to generate work.
Read more: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6221/540.full
The power driving the hydrological cycle described in the constrained work output study comes from the sun, it is the rate at which heat passes through the Earth’s climate system. This is NOT a sun controls global warming argument, it is simply an observation that there is a limited rate of energy supply available to power extreme weather, and rate at which the energy is supplied will not increase if the surface of the planet warms.
That thermodynamically limited energy budget can be expended on more extreme storms, or it can be expended on more frequent storms, or storms could be concentrated into a geographical region, but something has to give to balance the books; that energy budget cannot be stretched to cover storms which are both more extreme AND more frequent across the entire world.
Note to the Catholic Church…
Far too many Altar Boys have face far too much abuse from far too many Priests in far too many back rooms for far too long. The Church needs to clear it’s own hypocrisy and begin following all 10 commandments before it has earned any right to make demands of the children of the earth.
Keeping the 10 Commandments? I thought 7 out of 10 was passing.
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I get your point Bryan, and you’ll get no argument from me, but that thought popped into my head as an explanation of why I believe there has been some moral decline. It’s probably not that funny at all nowadays, particularly the way the socialists are pushing coveting thy neighbor’s ass.
Sex abuse of kids, women, homos has been present in every culture, to this day. It is not new. To some degree it is self-limited since women can and do fight back effectively, kids grow up and kill or jail the b*st*rd.
‘fraid it will be around forever. It’s built into our sexual nature.
I think the pope is right to highlight that we shouldn’t make sexual misbehavior a staple of society. For the most part it’s not something to be proud of.
“I think the pope is right to highlight that we shouldn’t make sexual misbehavior a staple of society. For the most part it’s not something to be proud of.”
For the most part? You mean that sexual misbehavior is something to be proud of some of the time? Which times would those be, exactly?
“I think the pope is right to highlight that we shouldn’t make sexual misbehavior a staple of society. For the most part it’s not something to be proud of.”
For the most part? You’re implying that sometimes it IS something to be proud of? Which times, exactly?
Hear hear, Bryan A! When the Roman Catholic Church disagrees with me (and vice versa), I know I’m on the right track. As an ex-Catholic I know what/who they really are.
Bryan A, I will not say your statements about abuse by Priests is off track so of that I agree. But in defense of the Catholic Church, for one thing, all people sin. This includes Priests and popes AND pastors of every denomination and adults in every profession. This is NOT to downplay the degree of sin as no child should be subject to abuse by any adult including Priests. That said the Church or any other ecclesiastical authority can have a message that is positive and still should be listened to even if the person presenting it sins. So attacking the pope on an issue that is NOT what his message was about is, what many would consider a red herring.
Now, if you want to attack the pope on his message, he comes from a country where he learned socialism and for some reason (contrary to previous popes) thinks it is a beneficial thing. Is there greed and selfishness by some to possess and exploit natural resources? I don’t pretend to know what is in the hearts of men AND I don’t think this pope has any special insight in that matter either. There is NO gain in possessing natural resources if you just possess them and do nothing with them. Only in obtaining them and selling them to your fellow man does someone gain from that. That process enriches not only the person who risks their funds but the people buy them gain benefit from them and those resources lift many people out of poverty making better lives for all. We have phrases for that, we call that free enterprise, free markets and capitalism. Apparently this pope is not familiar with those concepts. Previous popes have praised personal property, capitalism and free markets as ways to higher standards of living and a better life for the many. They’ve also condemned communism and socialism as a means to enslavement and poverty for the many.
What I take heart in is that this pope’s pronouncements are NOT doctrine or dogma so they are only “guidelines” that we can follow or not. I also take solace in the fact that his acquaintance with science and weather is about on par with that of my cat which is to say, nonexistent. Apparently he doesn’t realize that the oceans do not have as much plastic as the media tries to make you believe (islands the size of Texas etc. blah blah blah). AND they come from (in descending order) China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Brazil and then the US – but I don’t think he knows this either.
Currently his socialist leanings are being supported by advisers he has picked who are one world order supporters. Unfortunately he does not understand that if they had their way the Catholic Church and Christianity wouldn’t exist either. He has apparently shut out the advice of people who have dissenting opinions and knowledge of actual science.
So please don’t judge the Catholic Church on the misguided pronouncements of one scientifically illiterate pope.
Well, I suppose it was inevitable that somebody suffering from ideologically-motivated prejudice and wilful ignorance would submit a comment like that.
For anybody who wants to actually be informed by real evidence than by prejudice, there is this:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/do-the-right-thing/201908/top-10-myths-about-clergy-abuse-in-the-catholic-church?amp
But to keep to the actual substance of the article as a Catholic I can only cringe at the outpourings of the current Pope. If you really want to have something to make you worry about some of the goings-on in the Catholic Church today, don’t make silly, outdated comments about altar boys; just have a look at the documents which have been issued in connection with the forthcoming Amazon Synod.
Well said !!!!
I read the same item, you referenced. I wonder what Louis Pasteur or Fr. George Lemaître would say as to the current Pope’s knowledge of science?
J. Bob,
Pope Francis’ knowledge as scientist:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/03/12/pope-francis-scientist-2/
Historically, any time a “new” Pope was elected while the old Pope was still alive the second one always became an anti-Pope. In the past the reasons for these “elections” was always a political power grab. I think the current situation is no different.
Think the Catholic Church is bad on abuse?
You might check data on public school teachers, or HHS stats on child sex abuse. You might have a different view on the scope and who are the perpetrators.
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/resource/child-maltreatment-2017 Report
Table 3-9
Pope Francis has brought out his ‘Repent for the End is Nigh” sandwich board again. He should put it away in the Vatican archive and get back to his Ecclestiastical responsibilities again.
“Tragically, the human response to this gift has been marked by sin, selfishness and a greedy desire to possess and exploit.” …huh? who’s talking, the kettle or the pot?
If possession and exploitation are ‘sins’ then surely the Catholic church is no paradigm of virtue and a rather poor example to follow.
Firstly they tell you that your very existence is a ‘sin’. Followed by a pronouncement that your sin must be atoned for by some manufactured obeisance that oddly benefits the very same person that identifies your ‘sin’.
I have a different take on all this. If anything, it was Christianity, properly comprehended at long last, which was behind the enlightenment that set the amazing European expansion going. The first scientists (e.g. Galileo, Newton and Kepler) were wholly motivated by wonder and gratitude to the living God.
The Pope locked Galileo up.
Newton and Kepler lived in the protestant North where modern science had the freedom to develop.
The Catholic church fought science.
Robin
-“The Catholic church fought science.”-
One instinctively thinks the same , but it occurred to me one day, listening to an ebook about Nicholas Steno (born Danish , but became a Catholic bishop and died in Italy) that maybe Italy contributed to the Renaissance in Science almost as much as it did in art, architecture, literature and music.
The names ,Fibonacci, Torricelli , Fabricius begin to come to mind. I am sure that there are many more,(and indeed a look at Wiki showed that there are:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian_scientists )
The point that struck me reading the Pope’s address is the insistent assumption that the world is a divine construct and that we humans are merely put on earth to shepherd and guard it .
We may wish to take on the role of guardians, as in the formation of nature reserves, national parks , heritage sites , etc as well as conservation laws controlling hunting , but surely no-one believes these days that that role was divinely awarded to us.
I join “mikewaite” re Nicolas Steno, a contemporary of Isaac Newton. He was born in “protestant North” as a Lutheran. He was one of the very first real scientists, contributing enormously to anatomy and palaeontology. In later life he converted to your much despised Roman Catholicism – and was even canonized!
Nowadays we have completely forgotten the original, deep causative connection between Christianity and science.
As we all know, the Renaissance, the rebirth of the ancient Greek culture with its science, democracy and philosophy happened in Italy in the 1400s.
But as soon as these thinkers started to reject catholic dogmas, the church came down on them with violence in the 1500s.
Beside Galileo, its very instructive to look at the life of Giordano Bruno, philosopher, mathematician and cosmologist.
He fled from from Italy to Northern Europe in 1572, published his books there, made the mistake of returning to Italy in 1592, and was arrested, tried and burned at the stake.
By the Catholic church. Burnt alive by the Catholic church in 1600.
In the mean time, science kept on developing in the north, especially in the Netherlands in the 1600s, later in Britain.
I don’t know where you get your information on the Roman Catholic Church, but it doesn’t sound anything like the church community to which I belong. You anti-religion folks should really stick to something you know. However, I do think the current Pope is an ignoramus puppet for the Socialist elite.
Rocketscientist, again nothing new under the sun –
https://www.google.com/search?q=Vatican+finance+chief+hanging+from+bridge&oq=Vatican+finance+chief+hanging+from+bridge+&aqs=chrome.
Where’s the bit about us having dominion over all creation, Mr Pope? The current green mantra seems to have got it all back-asswards.
Genesis 1:28
“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it! Be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, and every living thing that crawls on the earth!”
Seems to me we’ve done a pretty good job, overall. There has never been a better time to live on this good Earth. It is a shame so many haven’t the ability to recognize that, including this terrible pope.
As a non-Catholic I’ve had respect for most popes, especially Pope John Paul II. This Francis guy is a Fidel Castro wannabe to my mind, a small potatoes socialist/communist mysteriously given a large stage way above his pay grade/intelligence level. Most Catholics I know are embarrassed by and ignore him.
BobM, totally agree. This Pope “talks” like all other progressives/socialists in that he appears to hate/despise the majority of his fellow humans for their God given free-will. But NOT all humans, only the unwashed, non-progressives/socialists like himself. You know, THE ENLIGHTEN ONES that should be running the world and have total control over us unwashed and uninformed minions.
At one time I had a lot of respect for the modern Catholic Church. With this pope, that has disappeared. This one is just a politician – not a religious leader.
Christians are reminded that no man is better than another at understanding the will of God. This one is a stark example.
And just what is the derivation of the word “pontificate”?
Can the pope explain the loving candiru?
Something fishy about that word.
While the candiru is a hoax, there are still some rather nasty viruses and bacteria that need explaining.
Global warming is a hoax but it keeps many people occupied
Pope Francis is from Argentina. He was sent to Technical High School, which is not a college track, which specialized in Technicians in Biology, you know, like how to feed lab rats and similar lab support tasks. Then he saw the light, so to speak, and he went to seminary school. His advancement in the Church came during the Kirchners ascendency. He possesses no scientific ability and is obviously inclined toward socialism. Who cares what this Lab Technician says? Only those persons similarly inclined?
inclined…is the understatement of the year
The people of Argentina have had enough of him saying he’s not a true Christian. Signs and placards going up around the country denouncing him.
I am not a great follower of the Pope. Do you care to give us a link or an example? If it is as you say, maybe the Pope is doing a publicity stunt, in the hope to attract more followers; pretty much like the politicians.
Carl Friis-Hansen said: ….link or an example? Search on Argentina/Pope/abortions/infanticide and he hasn’t been back home since gaining the papacy. His homies are not happy with him.
Does this not explain religion in a nutshell? The very reason I stay well away from all forms of it.
It explains humanity in general, not just those of a religious bent. The fact that you feel the need to exonerate your side from these sins is quite interesting.
the pope describes paradise.
if I remember correct, we have been driven out of paradise ? long ago, according to the catholic church?
we went to place with “thorns and thistles”?
so, what happened?
‘we went to place with “thorns and thistles” ‘
Scotland?
Don’t forget biting midges, horizontal rain and constant overcast dark days from September to March.
The good news is those are the days the midges don’t bite because all the creatures with blood in their veins have moved south or hibernated.
Out of adversity comes inventiveness, Scotland has a well earned prominence in advancing scientific discovery not to mention good fishing and whisky. Scotland improved Irish whiskey by removing the “e”…. apparently.
Your Holiness: Global Warming (I take your word that it exists) comes from a tragical overpopulation. What steps does Your Holiness plan to control overpopulation?
There is no overpopulation, nor is there ever going to be any.
If God didn’t want us to discover and use fossil fuels they wouldn’t be any.
“If God didn’t want us to discover and use fossil fuels they wouldn’t be any.”
Really? Same can be said for tobacco and methamfetaimne. Not everything the lord put here is that great. Not the sharpest argument.
So you refute that God is perfect?
“So you refute that God is perfect?”
She gets most things right, but just coz God made it doesn’t mean it’s good.
Will stop this here, not the place or within blog rules to go into religious discussions.
“Will stop this here, not the place or within blog rules to go into religious discussions.”
Huh? This is an article about the most prominent religious leader on the planet discussing his right or otherwise to comment on climate change and it’s impact on humanity. How can you not include religion?
Discussing the Pope and his climate position is different than a general discussion about the nature of God and religion. So yes to the first but no to the second.
So why ask the question abut whether God is perfect then?
Simon, I did so and then realized it was not a suitable discussion for this article as it was going to lead to a general religious argument.
If Pope Francis wants to “respond to the cry of the poor”, did he ever think that maybe the world’s poor want their share of fossil fuel energy that has lifted billions of other people out of poverty?
The Catholic Church itself has never achieved zero greenhouse gas emissions, even before the industrial age. For centuries, all those candles in churches have been emitting CO2 and concentrating it indoors. Even Jesus was described in the Gospel as cooking fish over a wood fire, which would have emitted CO2 to the atmosphere.
This is not to say that we should be wasteful and emit more pollution than necessary, but all animals (and people) exhale carbon dioxide, which plants consume to produce food using sunlight. If we believe that plants and animals were created by God, then He planned on carbon dioxide being in the atmosphere.
The pope runs business which has 10-15 billion dollars in cash/assets http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,833509,00.html The pope shouldn’t be telling the world what to do… They hid the serial pedophile George pell for years, and have paid out over 4 billion is abuse cases… If they used their stolen billions for planting new forests, or giving jobs to people who cleaned the streets of plastic, or opened a free school in which people can come together and invent new technologies which would help the environment, then I would listen to what they have to say. But as they are, I dislike absolutely everything about them.
I think we’re all shocked by Pell, I thought he was one of the good guys until he got convicted for pedophilia.
He is going to appeal.
Pell was convicted by one non-credible accuser with no corroboration of any kind. Over 20 witnesses disputed that his charge was even possible. Try some fact finding. If anything his trial shows how f’d up Australia is.
That’s just the Vatican. All real estate and other holding are many multiples of this.
George Pell was appointed to sort out the Vatican Bank.
The money men did not want that.
Charges arose of crimes that could not possibly have happened as alleged.
The jury did not convict. In fact they voted 10-2 to acquit.
The money men did not like that.
A new jury was appointed which, on the exact same evidence, convicted.
Pell’s appeal was rejected by two out of three judges.
Read the judgement of the judges who rejected the appeal.
Then read the judgement of the judge who upheld it.
Being literate, I can only conclude George Pell is innocent of the charges.
In due course, he will be exonerated by a higher court.
Victoria Court and Appeal Court judgements are regularly overturned.
In the meantime, the prison and the process keeps Pell out of the way.
The Vatican Bank remains unsorted out.
The money men got a result.
Photios, if there has been a miscarriage of justice and Pell clears his name, I would be happy for him, and I would be angry that such a miscarriage of justice could have occurred. But for now I think we have to accept that Pell has been convicted, and whatever we want to believe we have to accept that he is currently serving time for pedophilia.
Bad people don’t always wear signs saying they are bad, they pass amongst us by pretending to be good. Some of them are very good indeed at pretending they are something they aren’t.
He has been convicted, yes. I fully accept that.
But I do not accept that he is guilty of what he was convicted of.
Read the testimony. It could not possibly have happened.
Still, this is not the first time in history that injustice has occurred.
If witchhunts are to prosper, witches must (and will) be found.
Of course we ‘must accept that [witches have] been convicted’.
But must we really accept that they were all guilty?
I think not.
So, I suppose you can call me a ‘witchcraft denier’.
“In the meantime, the prison and the process keeps Pell out of the way.
The Vatican Bank remains unsorted out.
The money men got a result.”
That would have to be the most creative conspiracy story I have ever heard. I could be true, but it’s more likely given the testimonies of the victims that he is a scumbag. I’m going with scumbag.
“…given the testimonies of the victims…”
Nope – singular, not plural. Just one “victim”.
Oh, I beg your pardon – the “second victim”, since passed, is reported to have said he was never sexually assaulted.
I am dubious of a conviction where:
1) police asked for “victims” of the accused to come forward before they had any sort of case at all;
2) there is only the accuser and the accused as witnesses (“he said/she said” scenario)
3) public prosecutor declines to prosecute based on lack of evidence (they didn’t think enough to convict)
Oh, I beg your pardon – the “second victim”, since passed, is reported to have said he was never sexually assaulted.
There was one back in the 60’s and between five and ten boys that occurred between 1978 and 2001. He didn’t get tried for those but the last two were enough. Clink where he belongs
Sunny
I doubt the pope and his crowd have paid a dime for the church’s sexual abuse. Individual dioceses are defendants in these cases and are the parties that go bankrupt.
Sunny
“or opened a free school in which people can come together……….. ”
The catholic church has opened literally thousands of “free” schools across the planet. Where have you been?
Simon…… There must be plenty of people in the who are truly smart, yet can’t afford to go to school to advance their ideas…. A lot of religions open schools, islamic, jewish, sikh etc etc, But these schools teach the norm, and do not invite in people who could possibly change science, maths, or create new inventions… I am talking about a true school of advancement, not abc & 1+1 for kids…
Pell was convicted of sexual assault of two 13 year old adolescent boys. This is not properly called pedophilia, which involves prepubescent children. The majority of offenses in these cases involved homosexual priests having sex with adolescent males, an entirely different problem.
“Pell was convicted of sexual assault of two 13 year old adolescent boys. This is not properly called pedophilia, which involves prepubescent children. The majority of offenses in these cases involved homosexual priests having sex with adolescent males, an entirely different problem.”
Phew …. that’s alright then. Actually no it’s not. It’s a serious abuse of power that leaves it’s victims traumatised for life.
Can you read and think? I did not say it is “alright.” I said it was not pedophilia, but rather a problem of homosexual priests abusing adolescent boys. Failure to understand this difference is one reason the Boy Scouts allow homosexual scout leaders to take adolescent scouts on camping trips. Not a good idea.
Actually the historic victims were younger than 13
‘historic victims’? Can we have the evidence that has been used to prove in court that they were ‘victims’. Or is it okay in the case of Catholic priests (but nobody else) to take an allegation as proof beyond reasonable doubt? Just imagine if the same stance was taken with regard to accusations of rape. Any women (or man) could make an allegation and on that basis the person accused would be proved guilty.
Be very clear, Pell is being cast as a pedophile.
His big ‘mistake ‘ was to listen to Prof Plimer whose works contradict the current ‘consensus’ about global warming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_and_Earth_(book)
Plimer has written much about Pope Francis in a similar vein.
From then Pell was a target.
The case against him is being forensically deconstructed as I write
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/09/insinuate-incriminate-incarcerate/
Pell is interviewed by police. If you have ten minutes, make up your own mind.
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/09/the-contradictions-of-the-choirboy/
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/09/hidden-networks-and-the-get-pell-sting/
In this latter review they fail to mention the alienation Pell received from the left and many Catholics in Australia for his understanding of the Geological causes of catastrophic climate change and the possibility that present climate change is benign as we emerge from the LIA.
From then he was a marked man.
The problem in this trial is that there are no witnesses for the accuser, not even character witnesses or psychological profiles.Even his name is suppressed.
This is to protect the identity of the accuser to prevent further harm if the accusations are true.
As an aside the Victorian police, particularly the leadership, are being examined by a Royal Commission.
Just as a taste,someone paid an alleged criminal’s barrister to break client confidentiality.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/30/lawyer-x-what-we-learnt-royal-commission
As Kneel points out, without any evidence the police flooded the cathedral with ‘fact finding investigators’, years after the alleged crimes, and the press ran with the story, prejudicing any jury.
If Pell is convicted on appeal, there will be a case for pardon or a Royal Commission, or both.
Let priests marry and stop molesting children. Then you may speak.
Chico Marx once commented on the pope regarding his views on birth control:
“He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules!”
What has marrying got to do with molesting children? Serious question? Are you implying if they were married they wouldn’t target children? Huh?
“His Holiness’ claim that the intensity AND frequency of extreme weather is increasing is evidence of how badly he is being advised…”
That the Pope or any Alarmist who receives media attention is wrong doesn’t matter. They don’t care. The importance is getting the message out that supports their Agenda. 98% of the public will never know they made an error.
Unless the public is made aware of the error(s), they win the influence game.
WUWT provides an inroad. Much more is needed.
The last time the Catholic Church issued an edit like that it was during the Iquisition.
Sorry? An edict like what? And just what was the “edict” that was supposed to be issued by “the Inquistion”. BTW, which ‘Inquisition’? It might help if you started off by answering that question. You do know that there were several ‘Inquisitions’, dont you?
There is a very big gap between the affairs of the supernatural and those of
Science.
Jesus answered this very well with the trick question about who he owed
allegiance to. He answered using a coin with Caesars head on ne side of
the coin with “Rendered unto Caesar that which is Caesars, render unto
God that which is Gods.””
I would suggest that the Pope uses his expertise about matters of theology ,
and to leave matters of Science to those far better qualified than he in that
particular field.
The Climate change matter is all about Power. He the Pope is also
concerned about Power too, but that should be confined to that of faith
to his particular brand of theology, ie . to those who still believe in his
version of life and death.
MJE VK5ELL
When I was a child, “The Pope is a Catholic” was considered a tautology. I never thought I’d see the day …
Yes, I’ve been thinking the same thing for some time. If someone were to say “Is the Pope Catholic?” now, I would have to reply… “No, I don’t think so. He’s more of a globalist communist.”.
I’m not even religious and this is quite obvious to me. I wonder how devout Catholics see it? Do they see through it, or are they blinded by the dogma?
Mark H, I’d like to believe I’m a devout Catholic. In two thousand years the Catholic Church has been in existence NOT one pope has ever taught error in matters of faith or morals when speaking ex cathedra (from the seat of Peter). It was first declared in 1871 but comes from Matthew 16:19 where Jesus gives the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter for his understanding that Jesus is the son of God. BTW, all of them have sinned – we don’t believe that they are sinless.
The pope’s misunderstandings about climate are not dogma, just the ramblings of someone who has as much understanding about weather and climate as my cat. I had a long discussion with my parish Priest after a particularly disturbing homily on global warming and I hope I made a difference in his thinking.
I live in Florida and one of the many things I told him is that if he truly believes this crap, then he has the responsibility to tell the many snowbirds that are here from October/November until Easter that they should NOT come here and should sell their homes here as they are using energy to come here and go back and using energy to heat their places in the north as well as their places here and they cool them in the summer when they are not here. Or he and the Church are being hypocrites.
My sense is that that homily had little impact as the snowbirds continue to flock here and return and I see as many SUVs in the parking lot as I’ve ever seen.
Finally, I directed him to this website in the hopes he will be enlightened about these issues.
Pope should know ….. go to the same place for lying as you do for stealing …
Until Pope Francis consecrates Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with all the bishops in the world (as requested at Fatima on July 13, 1917) all his aspirations will be but a pipe dream. He cannot expect obedience without his own obedience to the Most Holy Mother of God…
Believe it or not, Frank the Peronista Pope is doing even more damage to the Roman Catholic Church than to the climate change debate.
The end of the Mother Church? Maybe…
Fortunately, there is still an Orthodox Church.
So all is not lost… 🙂
How do we have to abandon our dependence on fossil fuels and move, quickly and decisively, towards forms of clean energy and a sustainable and circular economy? Because I am thinking without electricity, gasoline, heat and food, we are not going to last long.
The ‘circular economy’ is in fact a tailspin.
Or …. centered on a drain .. 😉
Considering the number of potential irreversiblities the weather system possesses it’s actual efficiency is probably much less than the equivalent carnot engine. What truly matters is how much actual availability there is at any one time for conversion to work. This is practically impossible to calculate, but being far less than the limit set by the second law (carnot cycle in the simplest case) then perhaps for a limited period one might see work output increase. It is not steady state. If it were there’d be no climate change.
The pope went full Jesuit, you never go full jesuit.
So? The old Earth is supposed to die away and be replaced by an New Earth. It says so in the Bible.
Fact is, the Earth is getting greener, the air is getting cleaner, and there are fewer weather extremes. The pope should be complaining that we’re not doing enough to hasten this process.
Damn straight! I am eagerly awaiting Pope Francis’ next encyclical wherein he calls on ALL Catholic clergy to return to travel by mule, donkey, ass, burro or horseback to present a unified front for fighting climate change.
Sorry, il Papa, but prayers alone won’t cut it today.
“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” — Matthew 7:20
This Pope is a communist.
Before lecturing us on climate change among other things, His Holiness would do well to read a few quotes from the Bible regarding false prophets:
Matthew 7:15:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Matthew 24:11:
“And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray”.
And there are many more quotes from the Good Book about the subject. Perhaps His Holiness believes God would inform him if he was being led astray by false prophets.
At any rate, this leads to the question of why he thinks God made CO2 an evil demonic pollutant when it is a necessary and beneficial component of the Earth’s atmosphere at the same time. I guess trying to figure out what’s going on in the head of someone like His Holiness is a difficult if not impossible thing to do. There may be more bad things going on in this world than he realizes.
I agree with the pope, we should say “no” to communist greed. What’s that…? I misread something in his article? Oh well, never mind.
Nigh on 20 years ago, as a layperson ignorant of the then understood complexity of the Earth Climate System, I weaned myself from the CAGW via days of reading on John Daly’s “Still Waiting for the Greenhouse”.
The circus never left town. (well, correction: – it did relocate to various exotic locales, perennially, at great cost and with an amazing ‘carbon footprint’)
Our understandings that the CAGW premise has been utterly falsified have clearly improved since that time, but the relentless march of the totally unapologetic Globalist Propagandists continues unabated, in fact being amplified from every Quarter and in every medium.
Sober analysis above by Eric Worrall above, though I am at a loss as to why he has placed the emphasis on “This is NOT a sun controls global warming argument”.
Is there Something Wrong with considering that shiny bright thing in the sky might be a central element in precipitating Earth’s Climate?
The concisely constructed film here linked below, IMHO, should be eligible for a Nobel Peace Prize in the Climate Wars. I view it as a final nail in the coffin of the CAGW Theory, but alas, don’t expect to see it in our schools and universities, the MSM, or anywhere –
– not without a major grassroots effort to see it go “viral”. –
And even seen by many, not likely much will change regards the ‘relentless march’ – their agenda, of course, is evident now to be fully and ultimately, = anti-science.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEWoPzaDmOA
And the last climate paper out of University of Turku, Finland – I believe it was posted earlier here on WUWT(?): –
“…The IPCC climate sensitivity is about one order of magnitude too high, because
a strong negative feedback of the clouds is missing in climate models. If we pay
attention to the fact that only a small part of the increased CO2 concentration is
anthropogenic, we have to recognize that the anthropogenic climate change does
not exist in practice. The major part of the extra CO2 is emitted from oceans [6],
according to Henry`s law. The low clouds practically control the global average
temperature. During the last hundred years the temperature is increased about
0:1°C because of CO2. The human contribution was about 0:01°C.
3. Conclusion
We have proven that the GCM-models used in IPCC report AR5 cannot compute
correctly the natural component included in the observed global temperature. The
reason is that the models fail to derive the influences of low cloud cover fraction
on the global temperature. A too small natural component results in a too large
portion for the contribution of the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. That is why
IPCC represents the climate sensitivity more than one order of magnitude larger
than our sensitivity 0:24°C. Because the anthropogenic portion in the increased
CO2 is less than 10 %, we have practically no anthropogenic climate change. The
low clouds control mainly the global temperature.”
Finito de la Comedia
Tiburon, that video ‘Climate Forcing – Our Future is Cold’, makes a rather compelling case, heat from resistive heating of the atmosphere from currents induced by solar flare and CME activities. Thank you.
The video you linked is a failure top to bottom. There were no “TSI failures”. TSI rules the ocean, which rules the climate.
Ben Davidson who made the video suffers from Dunning-Kruger as does Dr. Brian Tinsley, Henrik Svensmark, and the Electric Universe by association when it comes to the relative magnitudes of the different solar forcing mechanisms. Electric currents in the high atmosphere do not drive ocean warming. Ben Davidson talks a big game about the sun’s electromagnetic effect but can’t see the biggest effect to save his life. Ben Davidson is as dumb about that as the pope is about climate change.
Otherwise I agree with most of your comment, except no one should use that video to teach anyone as it misses the main solar influence from TSI. It’s propaganda, misleading, and promotes pseudo-science.
I am the one who originally figured out how Henry’s Law produces the CO2 and TSI drives the climate.
The sad thing is Ben Davidson and several others like him aren’t going to stop mis-informing people on the sun’s main influence because they don’t know any better, ie Dunning-Kruger.
If the electric universe doesn’t like where this is going they’d better put their foot down before I do.
Linked again, for sharing by all
The Pope is a liar, so according to his own religion, he’ll go straight to hell when he dies. Nice.
Bruce C
Speaking of “his own religion”, what do you make of this?
“Let us also learn to listen to indigenous peoples, whose age-old wisdom can teach us how to live in a better relationship with the environment.”
Aren’t these the same people who were declared heathen worshippers of false gods and slaughtered with abandon as semi-human? Since when do the animists of West Africa, the Sabaeans of Ethiopia and the descendants of the Inca suddenly become the lights of guidance to a wayward mankind? This is bizarre. Are we back to the “noble savage” era where our exotic brethren in their “native state” somehow have access to an understanding of “the garden” of which we are bereft?
I grant that materialism has swept the world and the consequences of it are ruining whole regions of the planet, but seriously, why would we look for heavenly guidance from “the indigenous”?
I am indigenous too, you know, Mr Pope. I come from Canada I might be a good source of guidance if you would consult with me instead of only Al Gore’s toadies or David Suzuki’s acolytes. Consultation should involve everyone, not only those who have stubbornly resisted the claims of the religion headquartered in Rome.
He may, and probably should just abolish Hell. Think of the carbon footprint of that monster ……..
May he receive his just reward.
As soon as possible.
Pope, ““And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:25). … Tragically, the human response to this gift has been marked by sin, selfishness and a greedy desire to possess and exploit.”
As the late Christopher Hitchens so eloquently put it: “created sick, and commanded to be well.”
So it is and so the pope expounds, with no apparent awareness of his hypocrisy.
Once again, the Pope proves Church and State needs to be separated.
Communists hate it when people are able to improve themselves without being under the control of communists.
Dear Papa Frank,
Frankly, there can be no “low carbon living”.
Not for us. We are a carbon-based life form.
“Low carbon living” means less life.
Our food is carbon based. CO2 makes it grow.
Take CO2 out of the atmosphere and plants will die.
Then animals will die and people will die.
How many do you want to die?
How many would you have starve to death?
Millions? Billions?
Regards,
Photios
I think the idea is “billions”. Leaves more room for the rest of us (unfortunately for you, not you).
The Roman Catholic church can lead the way by refusing donations from all exploitive capitalist nations.
It’s disturbing that the Pope is so midguided about the effects of CO2. What else does he believe that isn’t true? He should pray about it.
I see the Pope needs a theology lesson, or at least learn the fundamentals in Biblical exegesis.
So he quotes Genesis 1 where prior to the Fall, God declares all of His Creation as Good.
What the Pope purposely and deliberately violates at least one of the Ten Commandments over is 1) pretend that Man’s Sin of eating of the forbidden fruit had no effect on 2) God Himself cursing the Creation which includes thorns, thistles, crop failures, geological and climatic calamities.
Furthermore, if the Pope actually read the Bible, he would notice that God flooded the entire Earth. Not man and his industrial smokestack, but for “every thought and deed of man being evil and evil continuously”, God judged the Earth.
When man engaged in all kinds of depraved behavior, God sent down “fire and brimstone” to destroy the land that they inhabited. Again, man’s sin, God’s judgment. This happened over and over again. Its all documented.
So why does the Pope lie about all of this?
He doubles down on his rejection of Biblical authority by profaning God’s command to man “Take Dominion and Subdue the Earth” and twisting it into a complete lie, similar to what the Serpent did, and is exhorting man to rebel against God’s command. In the Biblical narrative, we read that God put into the ground all kinds of things that He expected man to go find, extract and make things. The Pope categorically rejects that and calls following God’s direct command to man, a sin.
The Pope makes heretical claims, rejecting man’s sin, rejecting the Gospel while substituting a call to arms to repent to our secular masters and find redemption in obeying their commands.
The Pope is a wicked and depraved reprobate – a true modern day anti-Pope.
I pray that the Roman Catholic Church awakens to this hostile takeover and works to find a Man of God.
Hmm … that wasn’t a command but, rather an authority granted, given, before The Fall. The thorns and stuff after the fall weren’t “punishment” but a consequence. God gave it to Man. Man lost it. Who picked it up? Mat 4:8-10
“Acts of God” in insurance policies are rarely really acts of the True God.
People blame God for lots of stuff He’s not responsible for. And then don’t acknowledge the solution He provided.
They’d rather blather on about Man needing to control Man for one reason or another. “caGW” is just one the most recent.
The moment someone who is supposed to speaking for Christ says that the purpose of those men and women Christ died and rose again to save is to save “Ma’ Gaia” (or whatever name Gnosticism in the past gave “her”) rather than other men and women, “sumpin wrong here”.
The head of one religion pontificating on behalf of the followers of a competing religion.
how badly he is being advised
Or maybe he’s just a dunce who doesn’t give a fig for the truth.
“how badly he is being advised
Or maybe he’s just a dunce who doesn’t give a fig for the truth.”
Yeah… it’s not like the majority of nationally representative science organisations (Saudi Arabia doesn’t) on the planet agrees with him… Oh wait.
There is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and there is plenty of scientific rationale that the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. Please show us where in the bible it states or infers that making use of fossil fuels is sinful. Clean burning of hydrocarbons produces only CO2 and H2O which are the building blocks of life as we know it. Living organisms burn hydro carbons for energy and in so doing produce H2O and CO2. Please show us were so doing is sinful. What alternatives do we humans have?
As a lapsed Catholic I still have a knee jerk reaction to defend the Faith and to suggest this Pope is going off the rails; that he should be limiting his pronouncements to articles of faith.
But of course history shows that Popes have always been more political than spiritual (John XXIII teased us). In the past it was alliances with nation/states; today it is with ideology.
The good news is that except for amplification by the left leaning MSM, his opinions have no real impact.
Subsume the customs of a pagan religion , but in such a way as to not alter the Christian Catholic theology .It has been done before , as evidenced by Yule time logs, Tannenbaum , an mistletoes .Maybe someday we’ll have a Carbon Credit Carrol, rejoicing at the prospect of CO2 concentration plummeting below 150 ppm . I wonder what the Holy See thinks of Noah’s trek through the world wide flood , a consequence of God’s wrath .
OMG, here we have a pope saying we should be grateful for and look after the environment God gifted us. What??? And we should consider future generations as we live our lives. Tooo much. And at the same time, we should consider the poor when and or if we exploit the earth’s resources. What the hell is he… some sort of Christian or something?
But he isn’t really saying that, and the solutions and governments he backs make things worse.
“We were created not to be tyrants, but to be at the heart of a network of life made up of millions of species lovingly joined together for us by our Creator.”
Okay, but you also think we have to bring in tyrants to achieve this goal. Who would have guessed that Marxists had it all right from the beginning, that Stalin and Pol Pot were actually post normal visionaries.
So what is happening cannot be explained by thermodynamic science?
Another miracle!
This is the man who tells us to not make walls around our countries and select who we want to immigrate – from behind 20m high walls.
No country has walls as high as the Vatican – which is a small but sovereign state.
If the Pope wanted to use his considerable influence to make the world better, he would figure out why every country with majority Catholics is immensely corrupt and all the non-corrupt European countries are protestant.
South America is insanely corrupt, Mexico, Guatemala are among the most violent countries in the world.
There is something very wrong with Catholicism.
http://www.whichcountryinfo.com/least-corrupt-countries/
“No country has walls as high as the Vatican”
The walls are nothing like Trump is proposing between the US and Mexico. Last time I was in Rome you could walk freely in and out and I am pretty sure it hasn’t changed. Try doing that if Trump gets his way.
“The walls are nothing like Trump is proposing between the US and Mexico.”
Trump is building the wall, not proposing to build one.
Trump says the new wall will have a great big beautiful door in it to allow all those legally eligible to come in..
Do you have a door on your house, Simon?
You can usually freely enter the St Peter cathedral where all back exits are closed, so that you have to freely walk out the same way you came in.
Or you can pay for and enter the Papal Museums with the same result.
You cannot go into the interior of the the Vatican without passing security guards.
The problem is that Roman Catholicism is not Bible Christianity.
‘Let us also learn to listen to indigenous peoples, whose age-old wisdom can teach us how to live in a better relationship with the environment.“
That seems to be a bit of a break of tradition for the church.
Slowly but steadily the goddess Gaia is replacing the Virgin Mary as focus of veneration. Could it be that even monotheistic religions are doomed to fall back into paganism?
From The Remnant Newspaper:
“This pope is much more enigmatic than his predecessor — and that is becoming a problem. Right up to this day, many people have been trying to determine Francis’ true intentions. If you ask cardinals and bishops, or the pope’s advisors and colleagues, or veteran Vatican observers about his possible strategy these days — the Pope’s overarching plan — they seem to agree on one point: The man who sits on the Chair of St. Peter is a notorious troublemaker.”
From the article “The End of the Popularity of Pope Francis?” by Michael J. Matt
It seems certain that his election is a fraud. Isn’t it a CNN/NYT-proven fact at this point that the Russians steal elections?
Now I see my error, the Russians only steal elections on behalf of extreme right-wingers like Trump.
They do that to disrupt western society with
‘notorious troublemakers’.
Oh wait…
“Isn’t it a CNN/NYT-proven fact at this point that the Russians steal elections?”
No, the only thing proven is that the Russians *try* to influence elections. There is no evidence they have actually stolen an election other than possibly in their own country.
The Russians ran a troll farm whose main purpose in the American elections was to cause division among Americans. The Russians should have saved their time and effort because they can count on the Democrats to voluntarily do all that for them at no charge.
Tom,
A “CNN/NYT-proven fact” is analogous to a EurekAlert! press release about climate change (pure BS).
Sorry if my untagged sarcasm was too subtle.
Tragically, the
humancatholic church’s response to this gift has been marked by sin, selfishness and a greedy desire to possess and exploit.There, fixed it for Frankie
As God is considered to have created this world and all that happens in it, why does he leave the problems of Global Warming to be sorted out by the Pope? Is it because God does not see that there is any global warming problem in the first place.
Waving smoke and slinging holy water is not going to fix the Advocacy Climate Crusades.
…now I know, where the phrase ‘holy sh..’ comes from…
Holy bible: Genesis 1:29 New International Version (NIV)
1.29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food
…and the cute little Bambi and his brown eyed mother can be eaten by the Lions. The cute Baby-Seal can be swallowed down by the Polarbears…a.s.o…”
It seems to mee, that God was the first hypocrite on Earth…
Ah, I see what you done there. You deliberately left out the sin bit didn’t ya?
See, between Gen 1:29 and cute little brown-eyed mother comes Gen 3:15. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.” Then it was thorns and thistles time when they got kicked out of Eden. Lots of stuff got changed when sin came in, so it was after that that Bambi got gobbled up by big bad lions.
The Bible even got all the pronouns orl kerrect, something you never see any more.
It’s hilarious that the pope is jumping on the bandwagon- but then a central tenet of the people leading this “charge” is the burning of witches and heretics, so maybe not. He’s just mad he didn’t think of it first, but after all history shows a long history of the Catholic Church burning witches and heretics- interestingly much the same way that totalitarian governments deal with opposing groups.
It makes a nice cover package and bow in place of talk on corruption, mismanagement, scandals, and damage control.
When do they start sainthood proceedings for Greta from the evidence of miracle walking on water, causing people to fly, and miracle feeding of the masses with only a few pieces of tofu?
There was a photograph of Pope Francis in a WUWT post on Dec 10, 2016. I’m trying not to offend anybody, but that likeness reminded me of Peter Sellers. I can only hope that Mr Sellers would forgive me…..
Found this on another site and it seems apropos.
“Death to World Imperialism” (1917)
In the second coming of a carbon-neutral world, cited oppressions — with other bourgeois tendencies — will be as kaput as the internal combustion engine. (Not a joke. A Select Committee of the U.K. Parliament proposes to ban all private vehicles by 2050. This past January, Sacramento floated a bill that would ban the sale of internal combustion vehicles throughout the state starting in 2040.) Our synod points back to the future via aboriginal cultures in “multifaceted harmony” with “the life of the universe and of all creation.”
One defense against eco-fundamentalist rhapsodies by a cosmos-hugging Vatican is a ground-level look at the realities of traditional hunter-gatherer life. Start with Nomads of the Long Bow: The Siriono of Eastern Bolivia, a transcription of the field notes of anthropologist Allan R. Holmberg made during his year in the rainforest.
First published in 1950 by the Smithsonian, this slim text records the daily routines of a particular primitive band in the Bolivian Amazon in 1940–41. Written prior to increased acculturation from the 1960s onward, Holmberg’s eyewitness account remains invaluable. His observations go against the grain of current reveries about the paradisal conditions in the pre-contact Americas:
Only one who has traveled in the region can appreciate the myriad forms of insect life that harass the inhabitants. Since a great part of the country is swamp for at least 6 months of the year, mosquitoes of all kinds (and of which the area is never free) can breed unhampered and, as night falls, these insects, together with gnats and moths descend upon one by the thousands. During the day … their place is taken by innumerable varieties of deer flies and stinging wasps. When traveling by water … one is also perennially pestered by tiny flies which settle on the uncovered parts of one’s body by the hundreds and leave minute welts of blood where they sting.
The stamina of early anthropologists and ethnologists puts to shame today’s journalist-activists who romanticize pre-Columbian existence from the stacks of an air-conditioned library. Or on their own laptop, where they can drag-and-drop modernity into the trash:
No less molesting are the ants, most of which are stinging varieties. The traveler in the forest soon learns what kinds to avoid. Especially unpleasant are those which inhabit the tree called palo santo, the sting of a few of which will leave one with a fever, and the tucondera, an ant about an inch in length whose bite causes partial paralysis for an hour or two.
In addition … there are scorpions and spiders whose bites may also cause partial paralysis and for whose presence one must be continually on the lookout; and sweat bees, which drive the perspiring traveler to a fury in trying to escape them. Some mention should also be made of wood ticks, which range in size from a pin point to a fingernail. During the dry season as many as a hundred may drop from a disturbed leaf on to a person as he passes by. One of the most common pastimes of the Indian children, in fact, is picking off wood ticks from returning hunters.
Protruding stomachs were common among Siriono children. Holmberg attributed the distention to hookworm infestation, a familiar complaint in tropical and subtropical nations with poor sanitation. Bare feet provide a point of entry for hookworm larvae that thrive in soil contaminated by feces. (Distention might also have been a symptom of malnutrition, which, like anemia, remains prevalent in the rainforest.)
Eden was unsanitary. Infants were not diapered. There were no latrines:
In the early morning a Siriono hut must be approached with caution so as to avoid innumerable piles of excreta that have been deposited just outside the house during the night. Although adults retire to a respectful distance from the house to defecate during the day … their nightly behavior in this respect is restricted by the intense darkness, the annoyance of insect pests, and the fear of evil spirits, and they seldom go very far from the house. Moreover, the excreta are rarely removed the following day, but are left to gather flies, to dry up, or to be washed away by rain. Thus … the immediate environs of the house become rather unbearable to the unaccustomed.
Our bishops hasten to repeat Francis’s censure of a “culture of waste.” Yet the Siriones, among other aboriginal cultures, traditionally discarded the sick and elderly. Their ancient “worldview and wisdom” recognized the burden placed on group survival by the old and frail. Holmberg wrote:
People who are extremely ill or decrepit and whose period of usefulness is over, are abandoned to die. … The aged and infirm are weeded out shortly after their decrepitude begins to appear. … When a person becomes too ill or infirm to follow the [nomadic] fortunes of the band, he is abandoned to shift for himself.
Ants and vultures do the rest. Synodal enthusiasm for “inter-culturality” is a treacherous thing.
Personally I’m not looking to live like that so I can have a low carbon lifestyle.
Moderator, not familiar enough with html so apparently my attempt made the whole article the link instead of just the link https://onepeterfive.com/amazon-awful/
If you can correct it that would be great.
Moderator, my inexperience with HTML caused me to create the entire article as a link to the original at this site… https://onepeterfive.com/amazon-awful/
Can you remove that HTML as I now know that just posting the link makes it active.
thank you.
Quite impressive, though. That’s the longest link I’ve ever seen!
The right moment to ask the Vatican if climate change would increase the risks of angel-strikes as flocks of them scared from an ever warming paradise migrate to hell .
The Papacy is a political job, not a spiritual. The Pope knows no more science than Bible which isn’t much. He has put out so much that is antithetical to the Bible that it isn’t funny. And now he has to be anti-science too. It’s sad.
I wonder if the Pope realizes he is encouraging another religion with a false GOD . Money , mass population reduction , and one world government hiding behind an unscientific fraud . The earth has a fever .
How does the Pope feel about China , the biggest polluter on earth working to eradicate freedom of religion and extending their influence to more and more countries .
How would the Pope feel if the communists ruled the world . Then we would find out what real pollution is and
how fast the Catholic religion would be destroyed .
Capitalism is full of flaws , including allowing the global warming scam to take root but with all do respect
supporting it will end badly . Maybe the Pope will listen to scientists that know the truth about climate models and the effect of CO2 rather than rent seeking con artists at his door . Lets pray for that .